The following material is from
the Photovoice website prepare by Carolyn
Wang.

Introduction

Goals

Photovoice has three main
goals:

• to enable people to record and
reflect their community's strengths and concerns;

• to promote critical dialogue and
knowledge about personal and community issues through large and small group
discussions of photographs; and

• to reach policy makers.

Photovoice is highly flexible
and can be adapted to specific participatory goals (such as needs assessment,
asset mapping, and evaluation), different groups and communities, and distinct
policy and public health issues.

• reaching policy makers, donors,
media, researchers, and others who may be mobilized to create change

• conducting participatory evaluation
of policy and program implementation

Community Training and
Process

The first photovoice training
begins with a discussion of cameras, ethics, and power; ways of seeing
photographs; and a philosophy of giving photographs back to community members
as a way of expression appreciation, respect, or camaraderie. The curriculum
may then move to address mechanical aspects of camera use.

Community people using
photovoice engage in a three-stage process that provides the foundation for
analyzing the pictures they have taken:

1.Selecting – choosing those
photographs that most accurately reflect the community's concerns and assets

The participatory approach dictates this first stage. So that people can
lead the discussion, it is they who choose the photographs. They select
photographs they considered most significant, or simply like best, from each
roll of film they had taken.

The participatory approach also generates the second stage,
contextualizing or storytelling. This occurs in the process of group
discussion, suggested by the acronym VOICE, voicing our individual and
collective experience. Photographs alone, considered outside the context of
their own voices and stories, would contradict the essence of photovoice.
People describe the meaning of their images in small and large group
discussions.

The participatory approach gives multiple meanings to singular images and
thus frames the third stage, codifying. In this stage, participants may
identify three types of dimensions that arise from the dialogue process:
issues, themes, or theories.

They may codify issues when the concerns targeted for action are
pragmatic, immediate, and tangible. This is the most direct application of the
analysis. They may also codify themes and patterns, or develop theories that
are grounded in data that have been systematically gathered and analyzed in
collective discussion.

Conclusion

Photovoice turns on involving
people in defining issues. Such an approach avoids the distortion of fitting
data into a predetermined paradigm; through it we hear and understand how
people make meaning themselves, or construct what matters to them. Photovoice,
to paraphrase Glik, Gordon, Ward, Kouame, and Guessan, is not simply the
shuffling of information around, but entails people reflecting on their own
community portraits and voices and on what questions can be linked into more
general constructs or can be seen to be interrelated. It is a method that
enables people to define for themselves and others, including policy makers,
what is worth remembering and what needs to be changed.

First, education for critical
consciousness – developed by Brazilian educator Paulo Freire – promotes
individual change, the community's quality of life, and policy changes aimed at
achieving social equity. In Freirian terms, one medium that can be used to
reflect the community back upon itself, and to reveal the everyday social and
political realities that influence people's lives, is photography.

Photovoice takes this principle
one step further and specifies that the photographic portrayals of the
community be generated by people at the grassroots level. Just as Freire
developed word lists for literacy classes forged from the life experiences of
his students, so photovoice's curriculum is the photographic image of daily
life as depicted by community people. Initially, facilitated group discussions
encourage participants to analyze critically and collectively the social
conditions that contribute to and detract from their personal and their
community's well-being.

The pedagogy is problem-based
and contextual; the knowledge that emerges is practical and directed toward
action.

Feminist Theory

Second, feminist theory and
method is characterized by an appreciation of women's subjective experience, a
recognition of the significance of that experience, and political commitment. An
appreciation of women's subjective experience as researchers, advocates, and
participants, builds on the understanding that feminist theory and practice
carry out policies by and with women instead of on women, in ways that empower
people, honor women's intelligence, and value knowledge grounded in experience.
The choice to promote personal and community health through an educational
practice that revolves around community people's documentary images draws on
the feminist influence that takes account of power, representation, and voice
in relation to gender. Recognizing the significance of women's experience
values the importance of personal and everyday experience. In photovoice,
people first represent their lives to themselves and to one another, thereby
identifying common ground. Collective knowledge, and then action, arise from
the shared experiences of a group and an understanding of the dominating
institutions that affect their lives. The union of feminist theory and policy
gives birth to political commitment.

Community people's
participation in policy dialogue is an important but elusive ideal. Their
taking part increases the likelihood that policy and program aims will reflect
their needs and be more effective. Because virtually anyone can learn to use a
camera, photovoice may be particularly powerful not only for women, but also
for workers, children, peasants, people who do not read or write in the
dominant language, and people with socially stigmatized health conditions or
status. It recognizes that such people often have an expertise and insight into
their own communities and worlds that professionals and outsiders lack.

Documentary Photography

Finally, a community-based and
policy-relevant approach to documentary photography infuse the photovoice
concept and method. Photovoice provides cameras to people who might otherwise
not have access to such a tool, so that they may record and catalyze change in
their communities, rather than stand as passive subjects of other people's
intentions and images. At the same time, historic and contemporary uses of
documentary photography have informed the photovoice approach. The term
"documentary photography" has been used to describe an immense array
of visual styles, genres, and commitments. Roy Stryker, Chief of the Historical
Section of the Depression-era U.S. Farm Security Administration, shaped one of
the most well known contributions of documentary photography. He dispatched a
staff of photographers, including Walker Evans, Dorothea Lange, and Ben Shahn,
to capture the relationship between rural poverty and improper land use, the
decline of the small farming community, and the growth of urban decay.
Documentary photography has been characterized as the social conscience
presented in visual imagery. Stryker has provided a simple, broad, and powerful
definition of documentary photography: "the things to be said in the
language of pictures."

Other Documentary Efforts

One of the earliest and most
famous efforts to enable indigenous people to produce their own images was
initiated by Sol Worth and John Adair. In 1972, they wrote Through Navajo
Eyes, an analysis of their experience
training Navajo citizens to film their social world. As Feitosa has noted,
however, Through Navajo Eyes
reflected the interests of the researchers rather than those of the Navajos. By
contrast, during the past several decades, the Mekaron Opoi Doi project with
the Kayapo Indians of Brazil has been a landmark effort to reshape the
documentary form. The project has "had as its goal enabling the Kayapo to
produce their own videos according to their interests and needs" (emphasis
in the original).

In expanding immensely the
practice of documentary photography, Wendy Ewald'sPortraits and Dreams presented the images and words of Appalachian youth
who portrayed their everyday lives. In line with this trend, the photographer
Jim Hubbard has described teaching and learning alongside homeless children who
are "shooting back" with cameras.

Jo Spence's Photography
Workshop in Britain has helped to stretch the boundaries within which community
groups, labor and women's movements, and adult educators can move "toward
a better understanding of the progressive potential for making and using
photographs." Spence explicitly attempted to encourage peasants and
workers "to open up for discussion the social, political, institutional,
and subjective spaces which we occupy daily." Further, Robert S. Young has
promoted citizen participation by having junior high school students photograph
the basic structure of their local school system and discuss how they would go
about influencing leaders and making a change they believed in. And Deborah
Roter and colleagues as well as Harvard University's Rima Rudd and John P.
Comings have described a process by which community members help craft health
education text and photographs based on Freirian principles.

Ethics

Best Practices

Be aware of, and execute ways
to minimize, participants' risks, including physical harm and loss of privacy
to themselves or their community. Put another way, participants' safety and
well-being are paramount.

Facilitators should:

• describe
during group discussions the participants' responsibilities when they carry a
camera to respect the privacy and rights of others;

• emphasize
that no picture is worth taking if it begets the photographer harm or ill will.

The photovoice approach
involves obtaining written consent from participants
(and, if appropriate, parent or guardian). In addition, participants are asked
to obtain written consentfrom
the people they photograph. This has some drawbacks – it sometimes yields
stiff, less spontaneous pictures – but experience has shown that the drawbacks
are outweighed by the advantages: preventing misunderstanding and building
trust by giving participants an opportunity to describe the project and solicit
the subjects' own insights about a community issue; establishing the
possibility of a long-term relationship that may allow for future photographs
and exchange of knowledge; and acquiring written consent to use the
photographs to promote community wellness.

The first workshop never begins
with the distribution of camera but with an introduction to the photovoice
concept and method. It starts with group discussion about cameras, power, and
ethics, potential risks to participants, how to minimize these risks, and the
practice of giving photographs back to community members to express
appreciation, respect, or camaraderie.

Shared questions might include
the following:

• What
is an acceptable way to approach someone to take their picture?

• Should
someone take pictures of other people without their knowledge?

• What
kind of responsibility does carrying a camera confer?

• What
would you not want to be photographed doing?

• To
whom might you wish to give photographs, and what might be the implications?

Frequently Asked
Questions

How can I get funding to do
a photovoice project?

One approach is to apply for
foundation support. Foundation-supported photovoice projects have been framed
to match foundation interest areas such as the arts, women's studies,
reproductive health and development, community development, community health,
and innovation.

Federal support may be
available from the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease
Control, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Federal support from health
agencies may be more plausible when the photovoice proposal is linked to a
larger demonstration project or multi-method project.

What kinds of cameras should
participants use?

To answer this question, it is
helpful to ask more two questions: "What kind of cameras would
participants prefer to use?" and "What is feasible and practical for
us?" Kinds of cameras used in past and current photovoice projects include
autorewind, autofocus cameras; disposable cameras; and Holga cameras.

How can one get materials
and supplies, such as cameras, donated?

For camera donations, one can
send a letter of request to the manufacturer. The letter should spell out the
purpose of the project, anticipated benefits to the community, and specific
resources needed. When there is limited time to seek out donations, one often
can obtain discount bulk rates from retailers for purchases of film, cameras,
developing, and photo albums.

What is the ideal number of
participants?

8-12
people is an ideal number, and works well for group discussion. If a larger
number of participants are involved, a best practice is to organize two or more
gropus with about 8-12 people per group.

Photovoice is a process by which people can identify,
represent, and enhance their community through a specific photographic
technique. As a practice based in the production of knowledge, photovoice has
three main goals: (1) to enable people to record and reflect their community's
strengths and concerns; (2) to promote critical dialogue and knowledge about
important issues through large and small group discussion of photographs; and
(3) to reach policymakers. Applying photovoice to public health promotion, we
describe the methodology and analyze its value for participatory needs
assessment. We discuss the development of the photovoice concept, advantages
and disadvantages, key elements, participatory analysis, materials and
resources, and implications for practice.

Empowerment through
Photovoice: Portraits of Participation

Wang C, Burris MA.

Health Education Quarterly, 21 (2): 171-186, 1994.Per RA422.5.H4

Photovoice (formerly photo
novella) does not entrust cameras to health specialists, policymakers, or
professional photographers, but puts them in the hands of children, rural
women, grassroots workers, and other constituents with little access to those
who make decisions over their lives. Promoting what Brazilian educator Paulo
Freire has termed "education for critical consciousness," photovoice
allows people to document and discuss their life conditions as they seem them.
The process of empowerment education also enables community members with little
money, power, or status to communicate to policymakers where change must occur.
This paper describes photovoice's underpinnings: empowerment education,
feminist theory, and documentary photography. It draws on our experience
implementing the process among 62 rural Chinese women, and shows that two major
implications of photovoice are its contributions to changes in consciousness
and informing policy.